As the semiconductor industry has progressed into nanometer technology process nodes in pursuit of higher device density, higher performance, and lower costs, challenges from both fabrication and design have resulted in the development of three dimensional designs, such as fin field effect transistors (FinFETs). A typical FinFET is fabricated with a fin structure extending from a substrate, for example, by etching into a silicon layer of the substrate. The channel of the FinFET is formed in the vertical fin. A gate structure is provided over (e.g., overlying to wrap) the fin structure. It is beneficial to have a gate structure on the channel allowing gate control of the channel underlying the gate structure. FinFET devices provide numerous advantages, including reduced short channel effects and increased current flow.
As the device dimensions continue scaling down, FinFET device performance can be improved by using a metal gate electrode instead of a typical polysilicon gate electrode. One process of forming a metal gate stack is implementing a replacement-gate process (also called as a “gate-last” process) in which the final gate stack is fabricated “last”. However, there are challenges to implement such IC fabrication processes in advanced process nodes with small dimensions.